5-at-10: Friday mailbag on Johnny Football, Dennis Rodman-Kim Jung Un conversation and what do we do until August

5-at-10: Friday mailbag on Johnny Football, Dennis Rodman-Kim Jung Un conversation and what do we do until August

Gang, as always another great mailbag - and this time without relationship or gift undies.

From the "Talks too much" studios, see if you can guess what we are now? We're a zit. Get it?

From Chas 9

Friday question: What Heisman winners played on national champ teams?

Seems fitting that Maddox, Glavine and Cox all got in together. I thought from the start it was a shame The Bravos let Torre get away. Question: If you're hiring a manager 30 years ago, do you take a young Joe or a young Bobby?

I didn't think they'd hire Petrino, but jomo called it. Hide the volleyball coach and put a no motorcycle riding clause in the contract.

As a diplomat, The Worm makes a great basketball player. A request: Could the 5@10 channel the whispered conversation BFFs Rodman and Kim Jong Un have in their secret boudoir? And does Dennis wear his bride's dress to get things started?

9er -

We'll take these in reverse order because, well, we can. And as The Worm once said, "If you have a problem with my answer then that's your problem not my problem."

Dennis Rodman waves to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seated above in the stands, after singing Happy Birthday to Kim before an exhibition basketball game with U.S. and North Korean players at an indoor stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea on Wednesday.

Dennis Rodman waves to North Korean leader Kim...

Photo by
Associated Press
/Times Free Press.

Flash back to Dennis Rodman and dictator Kim Jong Un walking through a palace on the way to the in-house gym they will use for practice...

Dennis Rodman: "KJ, love the work you're having done. How much is this costing you?"

Kim Jong Un: "Thanks Worm. It's really just peanuts."

DR: Really?

KJU: Yep we feed them peanuts or we show them where we keep the dogs.

DR: Oh, I love dogs. Can we go there next?

KJU: Trust me, you do not want to see them. Ever.

DR: Whatever. OK, let's negotiate about the rules of basketball or world peace or something. I'm trying get a Noble Peace Prize for crying out loud and who better than The Worm to put the DIP in Diplomat. Hey is that a Gatorade machine with MJ's picture on it?

KJU: What?

DR: Where was I? Oh, is there some place I can freshen up, I need to check my jewelry and my guyliner. You know, people are wondering why I'm here, but it's got to be chemistry... You know the class in high school where they teach you that two plus two is 10 or something.

KJU: Man, you talk a lot.

DR: What's that? Where was I? Oh yeah, dude can you slow down the dictator stuff? It would really help ticket sales. See, lots of folks do not understand the bad stuff you have to do, they only focus on the bad. Did you see the movie that weird guy was in about the dictator? I forget the name but he was a dictator and did dictator stuff... maybe even dictation. Do you have to be really awesome at dictation to be a dictator? Seems that would be the way.

KJU: Maybe you should see the dogs... there is an old Korean proverb... "Closed mouth keeps its tongue in place." That makes more sense to me now.

DR: Hmmmm. OK. I have one more question. Why exactly am I here?

KJU: Truthfully, I was hoping you could get me Carmen Electra's number.

You bet we'd hire either of those cats. In truth, though, the Braves and Cox were the better fit because of his background. Demeanor is such a powerful trait for a manager because the marathon that is the baseball season. It's a haul, and you have to trust. You also have to connect and trust in the guy running the clubhouse. Beyond baseball knowledge and strategery, it's handling the rudder that makes the difference, and those guys were slap money at that.

Torre had the better career and handled the pressures of the Yankees and the Big Apple better than anyone in recent memory in any sport.

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Heisman winners to win the BCS title in the same year: Cam Newton in 2010; Mark Ingram in 2009; Matt Leinart in 2004. As for others that won the Heisman and won or shared in the national title that was given by the major polls since 1970 here's the ones we can remember: Charles Woodson in '97; Danny Wuerffel in '96; Charlie Ward in '93; Tony Dorsett in '76.

----

From TT

Read your blog every morning -- good stuff... You have been all over the place on Johnny Manziel and asked us if we would take in 1st round. I would. Would you?

Thanks, and your singing on the radio after FSU beat Auburn was great --and awful.

TT -

Thanks for the kind words and for listening to Press Row. And yes, the singing was enjoyable - and quite possibly made some people's ears bleed. Like an off-key "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," it's something that the first time or two is fine, but could get old pretty quickly. So it goes.

As far as Johnny Football goes, well, we love the draft - you know this. And we certainly would take him before we'd draft Blake Bortles.

Johnny Manziel

Johnny Manziel

Photo by
Associated Press
/Times Free Press.

In fact, the jury is likely out on all of the quarterbacks in this draft, which at one time figured to be a very deep QB class. There is a nice number of QB prospects, especially when you start to realize that guys like McCarron, Murray and maybe Mettenberger will be there on Day 2 and possibly Day 3.

We would draft Johnny Football and likely would spend the required first-round pick to get him. He is an underrated passer - and close to elite when it comes to accuracy - and actually improved as a passer from last year to this more than people realize. His size - and durability - are concerns, but with the league shifting to shifty QBs (plus the rules in place to try to protect quarterbacks) those are somewhat diminished.

We draft him because his ceiling is Steve Young (an elite ceiling by the way) and his baseline is Doug Flutie (which still is not that bad - and much better than Christian Ponder or Brandon Weeden).

----

From LaughingBoy

Maybe a mailbag question or a topic, how much should we care if "our" teams and players have integrity or at least stay out of trouble, as long as they're scoring touchdowns and hitting home runs? This goes for steroid scandals, spouse and girlfriend abuse, lying to employers, any other wrongdoing.

LB -

The depth of this question made us wonder if we would have the time on a fast-paced Friday morning to answer it.

Still it's an important point, and one that is magnified or reduced by several outlying factors. Those factors are multiplied by the state of current fandom, which is ruled by a trash-talking mentality that has forced a sizable portion of every fan base to relish the relief of victory rather than the joy of the experience so that they won't have to hear grief from their rivals.

If you are in the South, where college football is a bigger part of the culture, this is huge. And in the case of Bobby Petrino, which kind of raised this point, he lost his job at Arkansas for lying to his AD not for the extracurricular activities he participated in with Jeessica Whoseherboots.

The trash-talking factor above works to the negative too. Alabama fans will know him as nothing other than Scam Newton and will preach to their final breath that Saban would never had taken him. Which is fine, but the DJ Fluker mess that has disappeared or any of the other "allegations" that may have happened in Tuscaloosa are just rumors. And that's how fans view it - their team-colored glasses affecting the perspective of the good and making it great or the bad and making it invisible.

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Photo by
Associated Press
/Times Free Press.

To answer your question about whether we care, well, there is the correlation of talent and corruption, meaning that how good a player is will buy him more leniency for his actions among a fan base. This correlation is inversely proportional and is a doubled-edged sword, considering that if said player is elite the outcry from his detractors or opposing fans will be over the top. Think Tiger Woods or even the backlash LeBron got for The Decision.

In the end, there's no easy answer to your point which should be simply covered in the fundamental fact that we are all are flawed and human and prone to mistakes. We all need second or 22nd chances at some things whether we are an elite and wondering college football coach or a blockhead sports editor or the guy that cleans your street.

That fact is understandably different for stars in the public eye because of the stature of their persona and their paycheck and the fact that they are representatives of their school, their team or whatever brand is paying them.

We are interested in everyone's thoughts here and believe this could be a topic on Press Row with David Paschall today from 3-6 p.m. on ESPN 105.1 FM and simulcast on timesfreepress.com

---

From Jomo11

Jay- interesting that Texas Billionaire booster, Red McCoombs, critical of the Charlie Strong hire and expressing displeasure that he was not consulted. I think with all the TV money that BCS schools now get and other sources of revenue, that AD's are NOT as behoden to big donors. Sure they need them, but in most cases the AD may feel that donor can take his money and go home. Sure they still need donors, but not to the point where they control who is hired and fired. A real change in culture for big schools. As the Bobby Lowder-type days may be coming to an end. . . .your thoughts?

Jomo -

Interesting point, and one that makes sense for the really big boys in college sports.

In fact the growing TV dollars - especially for the uber-wealthy programs like Notre Dame, Texas and the upper crust of the SEC - that could allow the bigger programs to distance themselves from booster influence will only continue to widen the divide between the haves and the have nots.

Still the arms race that is college sports means that every extra million dollars or so matters, even to Notre Dame and Texas, and as frivolous as that sounds, it's because the schools that really haul in the TV dough are the ones with athletic budgets in the upper-eight and low-nine figures.

The fear of "lack of institutional control" has subsided the big-dollar booster image in a lot of cases - and in Lowder's case, his involvement in all things Auburn actually brought their accreditation into question in the 1990s, so it raised some serious concerns from all corners.

But those folks are still needed whether your budget is $10 million on $110 million.

---

From sportsfan

Mailbag query...what do we do til August now?

Sportsfan -

Well, there are few things we can do. Let's form a list:

One, you can start paying it forward (or paying it backward if the case may be) to the Mrs. Take the kids out and give here some time. Reintroduce your self to the extended family. Hey, any good deeds now help build the credit ledger for that mid-September triple-header that will make us not want to leave the den.

Nick Saban

Nick Saban

Photo by
Associated Press
/Times Free Press.

You could do some volunteer work.

You can listen to Press Row, and call in and either make fun of Lane Kiffin or praise Nick Saban. Hey, it don't cost nothin'.

Try to find a college basketball team you can support, because we all are going to play in an office pool and maybe this year you won't have Duke, Louisville, Kentucky and Kansas in the Final Four because you can't recognize any other teams.

Start following recruiting. We know this, the success in fall months to come are all-too-often built in the winter months of today. (Side note: We will have our regular SEC recruiting page in Sunday's TFP and TFP all-around ace Stephen Hargis has some UTC recruiting stuff planned in coming days, too.)

Or, you can get the calendar, start marking the days as they trickle by until preseason practice starts. Slow roll to good times.